Vladimir Putin said you’ll get “your goals” in Ukraine “for negotiation or for war”, in a telephone conversation on Sunday with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macronaffirmed the French presidency.
The Russian leader also stressed that “it was not his intention” to attack nuclear power plants Ukrainians, according to a French presidency source.
During their one hour and 45 minute conversation, Macron found Putin “very determined to achieve his goals”, including “what the Russian president calls “denazification” and the neutralization of Ukraine“.
The telephone discussion between the two leaders, at the request of Macron, is the fourth since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine on February 24.
In their previous exchange, the French presidency reported that Macron believed that “the worst is yet to come” and that Putin is seeking to take over “the entire country.”
Putin also called for recognition of Russian sovereignty over crimea (which Moscow annexed in 2014) and the independence of the Russian-speaking territories of Donbas (eastern Ukraine).
Some demands “unacceptable for the Ukrainians”, explained the French presidency.
Macron urged Putin that his army not endanger civilians, in accordance with international law, something that, according to the Russian leader, is not happening.
The French president responded by saying that it is “the Russian army that is attacking”, and that he has “no reason to believe that the ukrainian army is endangering civilians.”
Putin blamed Kiev for the failure of the operation to evacuate civilians from the port city of Mariupol (south), surrounded by Russian forces, according to the Kremlin.
Putin wanted to “draw attention to the fact that Kiev continues not to comply with the agreements reached on this serious humanitarian problem,” according to a Kremlin statement, after two frustrated attempts to evacuate Mariupol, with both sides accusing each other of having broken the ceasefire.
Macron had expressed concern about attacks on Ukrainian nuclear facilities after Russian forces besieged Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia on March 4.
“President Putin said that it was not his intention to proceed with attacks against those plants. He also said that he is ready to respect the rules of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) on the protection of power plants”, indicated the French presidency.